Este artículo estudia y def iende el derecho de las niñas y niños al trabajo. Contra el desinformado/interesado “sentido común”, las niñas y niños han trabajado siempre, con normalidad e integrados a la sociedad. El escándalo que hoy produce el trabajo infantil surge hace poco más de un siglo en el mundo minoritario, y no precisamente por una pre- ocupación por el bienestar de niñas y niñas y niños en cuanto tales, sino por la presión del capitalismo y de un (...) creciente y ya hegemónico adultismo, ventilado por la globalización al resto del planeta. La defensa del derecho al trabajo se hace aquí desde la perspectiva de los movimientos sociales de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes Trabajadores (NNATs), organizados en el mundo mayoritario para luchar por su derecho a un trabajo digno. Es decir, se hace “desde abajo”, considerando lo que signif ica el trabajo para las propias niñas y niños, para sus familias y sus comunidades que, como se mostrará, dista mucho de la concepción hegemónica: el trabajo infantil, nos enseñan los NNATs, puede equivaler a dignidad, a ciudadanía y a emancipación. (shrink)

For the last forty years, Hume's Newtonianism has been a debated topic in Hume scholarship. The crux of the matter can be formulated by the following question: Is Hume a Newtonian philosopher? Debates concerning this question have produced two lines of interpretation. I shall call them ‘traditional’ and ‘critical’ interpretations. The traditional interpretation asserts that there are many Newtonian elements in Hume, whereas the critical interpretation seriously questions this. In this article, I consider the main points made by both lines (...) of interpretations and offer further arguments that contribute to this debate. I shall first argue, in favor of the traditional interpretation, that Hume is sympathetic to many prominently Newtonian themes in natural philosophy such as experimentalism, criticality of hypotheses, inductive proof, and criticality of Leibnizian principles of sufficient reason and intelligibility. Second, I shall argue, in accordance with the critical interpretation, that in many cases Hume... (shrink)

The adventure of philosophy began in Greece, where it was gradually developed by the ancient thinkers as a special kind of knowledge by which to explain the totality of things. In fact, the Greek language has always used the word onta , "beings," to refer to things. At the end of the sixth century BCE, Parmenides wrote a poem to affirm his fundamental thesis upon which all philosophical systems should be based: that there are beings. In By Being, It Is (...) , Nestor-Luis Cordero explores the richness of this Parmenidean thesis, which became the cornerstone of philosophy. Cordero's textual analysis of the poem's fragments reveals that Parmenides' intention was highly didactic. His poem applied, for the first time, an explicative method that deduced consequences from a true axiom: by being, it is . To ignore this reality meant to be a victim of opinions. This volume explains how without this conceptual base, all later ontology would have been impossible. This book offers a clear and concise introduction to the Parmenidean doctrine and helps the reader appreciate the imperative value of Parmenides's claim that "by being, it is." "This thorough and controversial book will certainly be valued highly by the international community of scholars devoted to the study of ancient philosophy as well as by educated readers worldwide." --Alfonso Gomez-Lobo, Georgetown University " By Being, It Is offers a meticulous discussion of one of the most puzzling theses in the history of philosophy. It is a highly challenging piece of work from a philosophical viewpoint, an outstanding model of philological work, and a contribution that causes anyone interested in philosophical matters to reflect." --Marcelo D. Boeri, National Council for Scientific and Technological Research, Argentina "Parmenides' importance consists in the fact that he represents an absolute beginning in history, and particularly in the history of thought. We can understand why, for more than twenty years now, N.L. Cordero has devoted tremendous efforts to understanding the few verses that remain to us of this Poem. The result is the present book, characterized by its completeness and its rigor. It is an essential work on a seminal author." --Luc Brisson, National Council for Scientific Research, France. (shrink)

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s practical incursions on the domain of art were many and well known. It is worth drawing attention to the design that he did together with Paul Engelmann for his sister Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein’s house and the bust he made for, and was inspired by, the sculptor Michael Drobil. To attribute just an anecdotal character to Wittgenstein’s few artistic projects is a misunderstanding. The Austrian philosopher devoted himself to them with the fervor and rigor that characterize his philosophical writings. He (...) took care of every detail in his sister’s house, which sometimes ended up in difficult changes, although quite minimal (as when he had the ceilings lowered a few centimeters just before .. (shrink)

Einstein acknowledged that his reading of Hume influenced the development of his special theory of relativity. In this article, I juxtapose Hume’s philosophy with Einstein’s philosophical analysis related to his special relativity. I argue that there are two common points to be found in their writings, namely an empiricist theory of ideas and concepts, and a relationist ontology regarding space and time. The main thesis of this article is that these two points are intertwined in Hume and Einstein.

Discussion of modeling within philosophy of science has focused in how models, understood as finished products, represent the world. This approach has some issues accounting for the value of modeling in situations where there are controversies as to which should be the object of representation. In this work I show that a historical analysis of modeling complements the aforementioned representational program, since it allows us to examine processes of integration of analogies that play a role in the generation of criteria (...) of relevance, which are important for the configuration of the object of research. This, in turn, shows that there are norms in modeling practices whose historical reconstruction is relevant for their philosophical analysis. (shrink)

RESUMEN Este trabajo desarrolla algunas «figuras del Oriente» presentes en la obra de Deleuze y Guattari: en primer lugar, los hexagramas del Libro de los Cambios como un caso límite entre el pensamiento por figuras y el pensamiento por conceptos, y entre sabiduría y filosofía; en segundo lugar, los paisajes «típicamente» orientales y occidentales que pueblan Mil mesetas y ¿Qué es la filosofía?; por último, la figura del pintor–poeta chino como realizador del devenir–imperceptible. El objetivo es explorar las resonancias conceptuales (...) entre ambos autores y el pensamiento oriental, especialmente en cuanto a la articulación entre ontología y ética. (shrink)

Este trabajo parte de la pregunta por la posibilidad de deducir un planteamiento estrictamente político de los análisis ontológicos de la modernidad llevados a cabo por Martin Heidegger. Con este fin, se examina su interpretación del fenómeno griego de la pólis, así como la distinción que en ella se establece entre esta forma de comunidad y el Estado moderno, fundado para Heidegger en la esencia metafísica de la modernidad. Para clarificar esta cuestión se atiende a la proclamación de valores que (...) Heidegger observa en los diferentes modos de organización estatal que aparecen en la época de la consumación técnica de la metafísica. En conexión con ello, se estudia su visión del nihilismo y se ofrece finalmente una hipótesis sobre la forma de Estado que resultaría coherente con la renuncia a los valores que, a su juicio, exige la manifestación del ente en la modernidad como objeto por entero producible. (shrink)

I examine an intuitive property of folk-psychological explanations I call self-sufficiency. I argue that individualism cannot honor this property and work toward distilling an account of psychological explanation that does honor it, given some fairly standard assumptions. In doing so, my preference for an Externalist individuation of intentional state will emerge unambiguously. The assumptions I rely on are fairly standard but not uncontroversial. Yet not always do I attempt to defend them from objections. My goal is an account of folk (...) psychology consistent with our every-day practices rather than the deduction of an idealized psychology from first principles. I conclude with some applications offered as evidence that the goal was achieved. (shrink)

La educación es la atención a la grandeza del misterio humano concreto, de ahí que, el desafío de la educación no consista meramente en la búsqueda de medios eficaces o de sistemas de organización con los que conseguir mejores resultados. Educar es, antes que nada, transmitir algo valioso que conduce al descubrimiento de la vocación propia. Para la consecución de tal fin, el educador no cuenta sólo con la propia fuerza, sino además con la gracia que procede de Dios.

ABSTRACT Argentina has a rich history of social movements, of which the transgender is one of the most notorious and resilient. In this work, I present South American Transvestite Theory, its latest theoretical development, in the light of Deleuzian thought. Although Deleuze is not an actual source for this current, both can be productively connected as sharing several themes and concerns, such as the tight relation between creative thought and political practice, the ontological and practical consequences of the concepts of (...) identity and becoming, and the rejection of binary models as an underlying structure of hierarchical thought and social oppression. The potentiality of the encounter between Deleuze and South American Transvestite Theory will be explored via four heuristic questions, reminiscent of the Aristotelian causes, which respectively ask about their concrete intersections, their formal connections, the effects they could trigger and the reasons to read them together. (shrink)

En las últimas dos décadas, la relación directa o indirecta de Kierkegaard con la nueva fenomenologíase ha vuelto un tópico de creciente interés. Haciendo eco de este ánimo, en este artículo pretendo leerdos niveles del pensamiento de Kierkegaard a partir de las directrices generales de la nuevafenomenología. El primer estadio refiere al carácter descentrado del sujeto kierkegaardiano frente aDios, modulación que se entrelaza con una inversión de la intencionalidad husserliana. Por otro lado,el segundo escalón apunta a la intersubjetividad, en tanto (...) el reconocimiento de y la responsabilidadhacia los otros. El objetivo es mostrar que Kierkegaard contribuye al proyecto de la nuevafenomenología no sólo como un crítico más de la metafísica moderna, sino también como proveedorde categorías reconstructivas del individuo y la comunidad. (shrink)

El contacto del filósofo danés Søren Kierkegaard con el concepto de tolerancia está condicionado por el uso propiamente moderno del término. Esta noción encontró su camino hacia Dinamarca a través de N. F. S. Grundtvig, una de las principales figuras del contexto intelectual de Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard se aleja de la tolerancia de corte indiferente que defiende Grundtvig, pero también rechaza una intolerancia violenta y coercitiva. En este marco, el objetivo de este artículo es bosquejar el lugar que ocupa la tolerancia (...) en el pensamiento cristiano de Kierkegaard y la contribución que puede significar para repensar las relaciones intersubjetivas y sociales. (shrink)

Since its emergence, the contemporary environmental problem has become an object of analysis and intervention both for ecology (area of biology) and for different intergovernmental organizations with a global reach. In both fields, a series of conceptual frameworks have been developed aimed at addressing ecological changes, that is, those alterations that affect units that are the object of study of ecology. The aim of this paper is to clarify and contrast the ways in which disturbance ecology (a recent field within (...) ecology) and different intergovernmental organizations conceptualize and approach ecological change. To do this, we make an analytical comparison between the ecological concept of ‘disturbance’ and the notion of ‘driver’ coming from intergovernmental organizations. In the comparison, we observe that these concepts seek to explain similar processes of ecological change under the same causal logic, although they show important differences in the treatment of the initial conditions that allow them to be studied. We conclude that the notion of ‘driver’ leads to an epistemological impoverishment in relation to the concept of ‘disturbance’. Finally, we discuss some implications of this epistemological problem, given that it is the impoverished notion of ‘driver’ that is imposed on the international context when explaining an ecological change, and materialized in guidelines which are recognized by nations around the world. Thus, this impoverishment is transferred to the field of public policy. It is urgent to rethink to what extent we are contributing to the construction and reproduction of an epistemologically impoverished environmental problem. (shrink)

In the following, I will trace the presence of Montesquieu in Arendt’s work, giving an account of both Arendt’s praise for the French writer’s particular way of thinking the political and his approach to problems that will become central to the development of Arendt’s own thought. Firstly, I will follow Arendt down the path that led her to discover fundamental tools in Montesquieu for understanding totalitarianism “with eyes unclouded by philosophy.” Secondly, I will track the way in which the Arendtian (...) reconceptualization of some key political words—power, law and freedom—is threaded through with her reading of the French author. Thirdly, I will look into the way in which Montesquieu’s formulation of a particular link between what Arendt calls the basic experience and the political regime, allows her to go on to discover a criteria that makes it possible to distinguish between political and anti-political ways of living together; and allows us to see that there is a phenomenally essential element within tyranny and totalitarianism that ensures that it “develops the germs of its own destruction the moment it comes into existence.”. (shrink)

McTaggart famously introduced the A- and B-series as rival metaphysical accounts of time. This paper shall reorient the debate over the original distinction. Instead of treating the series as competing theories about the nature of time, it will be argued that they are different viewpoints on a world that is fundamentally physical. To that end, non-reductive physicalism is proposed to reconcile the series.

Given the sharp distinction that follows from Hume’s Fork, the proper epistemic status of propositions of mixed mathematics seems to be a mystery. On the one hand, mathematical propositions concern the relation of ideas. They are intuitive and demonstratively certain. On the other hand, propositions of mixed mathematics, such as in Hume’s own example, the law of conservation of momentum, are also matter of fact propositions. They concern causal relations between species of objects, and, in this sense, they are not (...) intuitive or demonstratively certain, but probable or provable. In this article, I argue that the epistemic status of propositions of mixed mathematics is that of matters of fact. I wish to show that their epistemic status is not a mystery. The reason for this is that the propositions of mixed mathematics are dependent on the Uniformity Principle, unlike the propositions of pure mathematics. (shrink)

There is a longstanding debate in the stakeholder literature as to who and what really counts as the stakeholders of the firm. Likewise, there have been discussions on whether nature should be considered a stakeholder of the firm. However, one seldom encounters any definitions of the key concepts, that is of nature or the natural environment . We seek to contribute to the debate by taking a closer look at what this thing called nature actually is. In addition, we discuss (...) the implications of this conceptual refinement for the stakeholder model. In order to reinforce the status of the natural environment in the stakeholder model, we propose that any visualisation of a stakeholder network should be embedded in the natural environment. (shrink)

In Black Skin, white masks, Franz Fanon uses a psychoanalytic framework to theorize the inferiority-dependency complex of Black men in response to the colonial racism of white men. Applying his framework in reverse, this theoretical article psychoanalyzes the white psyche and emotionality with respect to the racialization process of whites and their racial attachment to Blackness. Positing that such a process is interconnected with narcissism, humanistic emptiness, and psychosis, this article presents how racial attachment becomes racial fetish. Such a fetish (...) reifies whiteness by accumulating fictive kinships with friends of color; hence, the common parlance of ‘But I have a Black friend!’ The article, then, overlays this theoretical interpretation onto the subject of teacher education in the US, specifically urban teacher education programs that are predominantly comprised of white middle-class females who claim a desire to ‘save’ urban students of color. Ending with the dangers and hopes of a more humanistic friendship, this article offers emotional ways one can self-actualize the racialization process. (shrink)

En confrontación con las interpretaciones que asignan un significado religioso o teológico a las referencias a los dioses, a lo sagrado, o al “último dios” presentes en la obra de Martin Heidegger, este trabajo defiende una lectura en clave estrictamente ontológica de tales referencias. Para ello, se remite al diálogo que Heidegger mantiene con la poesía de Hölderlin y se argumenta que el significado que atribuye a la invocación hölderliniana a los “dioses huidos” depende del carácter ontológico que, en otro (...) contexto, concede a la nominación de los dioses característica del decir poético griego. Ese mismo carácter se pone de manifiesto en el sentido que, según Heidegger, ostenta la apelación a “lo sagrado” de la poesía de Hölderlin como nombre poético del ser en su despliegue histórico. Finalmente, dicha interpretación se hace extensiva a la figura del “último dios”, resaltando que su comprensión pasa por atender a la exégesis heideggeriana de la cuestión de la huida de los dioses en la obra poética de Hölderlin. (shrink)

Giorgio Agamben and Ludwig Wittgenstein seem to have very little in common: the former is concerned with traditional ontological issues while the latter was interested in logics and ordinary language, avoiding metaphysical issues as something we cannot speak about. However, both share a crucial notion for their philosophical projects: form of life. In this paper, I try to show that, despite their different approaches and goals, form of life is for both a crucial notion for thinking ethics and life in-common. (...) Addressing human existence in its constitutive relation to language, this notion deconstructs traditional dichotomies like bios and zoé, the cultural and the biological, enabling both authors to think of a life which cannot be separated from its forms, recognizing the commonality of logos as the specific trait of human existence. Through an analogical reading between both theoretical frameworks, I suggest that the notion of form-of-life, elaborated by Wittgenstein to address human production of meaning, becomes the key notion in Agamben's affirmative thinking since it enables us to consider the common ontologically in its relation to Human potentialities and to foresee a new, common use of the world and ourselves. Giorgio Agamben e Ludwig Wittgenstein parecem ter muito pouco em comum: o primeiro se ocupa de questões ontológicas tradicionais, enquanto o segundo estava interessado na Lógica e na linguagem corrente, evitando os problemas metafísicos como algo de que não podemos falar. No entanto, ambos partilham um conceito crucial para seus projetos filosóficos respectivos: forma de vida. Este artigo tento mostrar que, apesar de seus diferentes enfoques e objetivos, a noção de forma de vida é fundamental no momento de pensar a ética e a vida em-comum. Abordando a existência humana em sua relação constitutiva com a língua, essa noção desconstrói dicotomias tradicionais como bios e zoe, o cultural e o biológico, permitindo-lhes pensar uma vida que não pode ser separada de suas formas, e reconhecendo o caráter comum do logos como o traço específico da existência humana. Através de uma leitura analógica entre ambos quadros teóricos, sugiro que a noção de forma-de-vida, elaborada por Wittgenstein para abordar a produção humana de significados, tornase o conceito-chave do pensamento afirmativo de Agamben, já que nos permite considerar o comum ontologicamente em sua relação com as potencialidades humanas e vislumbrar um uso novo e comum do mundo e de nós mesmos. (shrink)

Artikkelissa puolustetaan syy-seuraussuhteen ajallista yksisuuntaisuutta. Positiivinen argumentti perustuu ajanluontoisten tapahtumien ennen–jälkeen-suhteen pysyvyyteen. Olennaiset vastaväitteet, jotka perustuvat samanaikaiseen kausaliteettiin, antikausaaliseen fysiikan filosofiaan ja luonnonlakien symmetrisyyteen, otetaan huomioon. Johtopäätöksenä todetaan, että malliesimerkit kausaliteetista ilmentävät syyn ja seurauksen epäsymmetriaa. Syy alkaa ennen sen seurausta, vaikka ne ovat osittain samanaikaisia.

La dirección de Nemesio Antúnez entre 1962 y 1964, y las administraciones que le siguieron en el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), son un caso ejemplar de las dinámicas político-culturales desarrolladas durante la Guerra Fría. Este artículo analiza esta gestión museal desde la historia intelectual y la historia cultural, trabajando las redes de pensamiento que rodearon a Antúnez y la disquisición entre su programación y la influencia norteamericana en ese momento, atendiendo a cómo el MAC se involucró en la guerra (...) fría cultural. De esta manera se busca aportar al conocimiento de las tramas institucionales que se dieron entre la intelectualidad periférica y los centros metropolitanos durante uno de los periodos claves del siglo XX, presentando ciertos programas expositivos que respondieron al impulso de los EE. UU. de inserción ideológica. (shrink)

The study analyses how the corporate rhetoric of sustainability has developed in Finland during 1985-2005. The dataset consisting of the disclosures of four leading Finnish companies has been analyzed through discourse analytic methods. The findings question whether the ever-increasing popularity of sustainability-related concepts actually means that society is moving forward on the road towards sustainability.

The study provides insights on why large Finnish municipalities are engaging in sustainability reporting. The dataset consists of the sustainability disclosures of five large Finnish cities and of a set of interviews conducted with the personnel responsible for composing the sustainability reports in these cities. Preliminary findings suggest that this rising practice is again an example of a fad, arising as the public sector organizations mimic the corporate sector without anyone really pondering whether the municipalities and the public sector as (...) a whole truly need a similar practice the corporations have. We maintain that there are better ways to use a municipality’s scarce resources than imitating the corporate sustainability reporting practices through producing a sustainability report, the main task of which seems to be to exist. (shrink)

El siguiente artículo muestra algunas particularidades del trabajo femenino en el colectivo laboral docente a principios del siglo XX en Mendoza. Contrastamos investigaciones teóricas y empíricas dedicadas a esta temática en diferentes regiones de la Argentina con las fuentes históricas locales disponibles –informes oficiales, diarios, revistas gremiales y fotografías-. Analizamos las tensiones y conflictos que caracterizaron a la cuestión de la feminización del magisterio desde la historia social con perspectiva de género. Hacemos hincapié en las expectativas sociales que modelaron la (...) tarea docente, sin desatender las contradicciones con sus condiciones de vida y de trabajo. Por caso analizamos la labor docente en zonas rurales de la provincia, marcado por una ausencia de regulaciones legales.Se articulan tres cuestiones en torno a las educacionistas. La tensión entre la función maternal docente y la función modernizadora de ciudadanizar a la población, sin abandonar la sospecha -de la burocracia gubernamental- sobre la incapacidad femenina de formar ciudadanos signados por la virilidad. En segundo lugar la “misión” social/vocacional del magisterio que al trascender lo profesional deslegitimaba las demandas laborales concretas. Y finalmente, la homologación de la maestra con la escuela, las recargó de responsabilidades, al tiempo que se desconocía la multiplicidad de factores y dimensiones que incidían en el funcionamiento de la escuela y el sistema educativo. Este contexto determinado por la estrechez presupuestaria caracterizó a la política educativa de ese tiempo y afectó no sólo a la infraestructura sino a los salarios docentes y, por ende, a la reproducción de sus vidas. (shrink)

The article discusses the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871 from the point of view of the conceptions of democracy. It situates its historical novelty on the basis of the opposing views of Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. It critically exposes some of the later interpretations of the democratic content of the Commune in Marxism to inquire about the specificity of the democratic principle of the Commune, its novelty and its differences with representative democracies under capitalism.

En este articulo se interpreta teoría y práctica de la historieta durante la Unidad Popular chilena desde aspectos contextuales y sociales, intermediales y culturales. La teoría se expone a partir del popular ensayo Cómo leer al Pato Donald (1972) de Ariel Dorfman y Armand Mattelart como crítica al cómic de Disney pero también como implícita propuesta de una práctica distinta. Como contraste práctico se estudiarán dos ejemplos de las revistas de la Editora Nacional Quimantú Cabrochico y El manque. En estas (...) historietas, basadas en la evaluación crítica de Dorfman y Mattelart, logran distinta articulaciones entre narrativa visual, la política y la recepción de los lectores. (shrink)

In this squib, I evaluate the contradiction analysis (Abrusán in Natural Language Semantics 19(3):257–321, 2011, in Weak island semantics, 2014 ) and the necessary infelicity analysis (Oshima in Washio et al. (eds.), New frontiers in artificial intelligence, 2007 ; Schwarz and Simonenko in Natural Language Semantics 26(3–4):253–279, 2018b ) of factive islands in light of a pattern that has not been previously discussed in the literature: questions about propositions. I argue that while the necessary infelicity approach can straightforwardly explain the (...) acceptability of this kind of question, the contradiction account undergenerates, since it wrongly predicts their ungrammaticality. I claim that this prediction follows from the assumption that the domain of quantification contains contraries. Therefore, the main contribution of this squib is the observation that such an assumption cannot play an explanatory role in accounting for factive islands. (shrink)

In this article I am going to reconstruct Stephen Toulmin’s procedural theory of concepts and explanations in order to develop two overlooked ideas from his philosophy of science: methods of representations and inferential techniques. I argue that these notions, when properly articulated, could be useful for shedding some light on how scientific reasoning is related to representational structures, concepts, and explanation within scientific practices. I will explore and illustrate these ideas by studying the development of the notion of instantaneous speed (...) during the passage from Galileo’s geometrical physics to analytical mechanics. At the end, I will argue that methods of representations could be considered as constitutive of scientific inference; and I will show how these notions could connect with other similar ideas from contemporary philosophy of science like those of models and model-based reasoning. (shrink)

The definition of the sophist as "image-maker" allows Plato to add to the novelties he presents in the _Sophist_ two topics he hadn't deepened in his previous dialogues: (a) a "definition" of being (247e) and (b) the influence this position will have on the relationship between image and truth. From a first definition of the image proposed by Theaetetus in 240a we deduce that, even if it is not true, it is "really" (_óntos_) an image, which does not coincide with (...) the devalued or secondary reality that Plato had always attributed to this notion, from which all truth was absent. This conclusion, indeed, astonishes Theaetetus, attached to the Platonic "orthodoxy". This astonishment is not present in the orthodox version of the text of the passage 240a-c of the _Sophist_, which inherits from a modification of the widespread text from 1851. Once the original version is restored, the definition of the fact of being proposed in 247e justifies the "really real" character of the image, which respects the condition required to everything that "possesses" being: the possibility of acting or being affected. Indeed, the image is "affected" by the model, that it tries to imitate, because the model "affects" it. The image, even if it is not true, is real. (shrink)

Eternalism is the view that all times are equally real. The relativity of simultaneity in special relativity backs this up. There is no cosmically extended, self-existing ‘now.’ This leads to a tricky problem. What makes statements about the present true? I shall approach the problem along the lines of perspectival realism and argue that the choice of the perspective does. To corroborate this point, the Lorentz transformations of special relativity are compared to the structurally similar equations of the Doppler effect. (...) The ‘now’ is perspectivally real in the same way as a particular electromagnetic spectrum frequency. I also argue that the ontology of time licensed by perspectival realism is more credible in this context than its current alternative, the fragmentalist interpretation of special relativity. (shrink)

This article investigates the relationship between Hume’s causal philosophy and Newton ’s philosophy of nature. I claim that Newton ’s experimentalist methodology in gravity research is an important background for understanding Hume’s conception of causality: Hume sees the relation of cause and effect as not being founded on a priori reasoning, similar to the way that Newton criticized non - empirical hypotheses about the properties of gravity. However, according to Hume’s criteria of causal inference, the law of universal gravitation is (...) not a complete causal law, since it does not include a reference either to contiguity or to temporal priority. It is still argued that because of the empirical success of Newton ’s theory—the law is a statement of an exceptionless repetition—Hume gives his support to it in interpreting gravity force instrumentally as if it bore a causal relation to motion. (shrink)

Although the main focus of Hume’s career was in the humanities, his work also has an observable role in the historical development of natural sciences after his time. To show this, I shall center on the relation between Hume and two major figures in the history of the natural sciences: Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Both of these scientists read Hume. They also found parts of Hume’s work useful to their sciences. Inquiring into the relations between Hume and (...) the two scientists shows that his philosophical positions had a partial but constructive role in the formation of modern biology and physics. This is accordingly a clear indication of Hume’s impact on the scientific tradition. Before proceeding to analyze Hume’s contribution to the history of science, it is important to address his broader role in the history of philosophy of science. Hume’s discussions concerning the topics of causation, induction, the distinction between mathematical and empirical propositions, and laws of nature have been important for the philosophy of science of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (shrink)

Causal cognition – how we perceive, represent and reason about causal events – are fundamental to the human mind, but it has rarely been approached in its cultural specificity. Here, we investigate this core concept among Wichi people, an indigenous group living in Chaco Forest. We focus on the Wichi, because their epistemological orientations and explanatory frameworks about ecosystem differ importantly from those documented among most Western majority-culture populations. We asked participants to reason about causes of events that involve the (...) hunhat lheley (inhabitants of the earth: humans, non-human animals, plants and spiritual beings) and other entities of their ecosystem (e.g., lagoon). We find a native ontological framework that encompasses three interacting organizing principles. This new evidence highlights ways in which native categories guide causal reasoning. Our research challenge long-held assumptions that dichotomies – nature-culture or natural-supernatural – are universal features of the human mind. (shrink)

Some authors, inspired by the theoretical requirements for the formulation of a quantum theory of gravity, proposed a relational reconstruction of the quantum parameter-time—the time of the unitary evolution, which would make quantum mechanics compatible with relativity. The aim of the present work is to follow the lead of those relational programs by proposing a relational reconstruction of the event-time—which orders the detection of the definite values of the system’s observables. Such a reconstruction will be based on the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation (...) of quantum mechanics, which provides a clear criterion to select which observables acquire a definite value and to specify in what situation they do so. (shrink)

Lorsque Platon essaie, dans le Sophiste, de réfuter l'argumentation de Parménide à propos de l'inexistence du non- être, il arrive à une conclusion inattendue : c'est la langue grecque qui, du fait d'identifier « ce qui est » aux étants, rend impossible d'exprimer « ce qui n'est pas ». Or, étant donné que le discours faux, propre à la sophistique, suppose que « ce qui n'est pas » existe, Platon examine les théories des philosophes qui l'ont précédé et il découvre (...) que, mis à part le néant absolu, sur lequel il partage le jugement de Parménide, un certain non- être est possible : celui de la prédication. Fidèle à sa philosophie, Platon propose une Forme comme garantie de ce non- être relatif : l' Altérité. Celle-ci, avec sa Forme complémentaire, l'Identité, assure dorénavant la définition de chaque réalité. When Plato, in the Sophist, tries to turn down Parmenides' argumentation about the existence of non-being, he reaches a most unexpected conclusion : i.e. the Creek language, identifying « what is » to « the beings », makes it impossible to express what is not. Now, since tbe false discours, proper to sophistics, supposes that « that wbich is not » exists, Plato examines the théories of the philosophers who came before him and discovers that, apart from the absolute nothingness — on which he shares Parmenides' judgement —, some kind of a non-being is possible, i.e. that of prédication. True to his philosophy, Plato suggests a Form as warrant of such a « relative » non-being : the Différent. This Form, with its complementary Form, the Identity, guarantees the définition of every reality. (shrink)